IT Life After Microsoft Ends Windows XP Support

Awareness of Windows XP End-of-Life Deadline

Almost two in 10 IT pros are still unaware of issue. Aware of April 8, 2014 deadline for Windows XP support: 81%, Unaware of April 8, 2014 deadline for Windows XP support: 19%

Percentage of Computers Currently Running Windows XP

A significant number of Windows XP computers are still operating in the enterprise. None to less than ten percent: 23%, Ten percent: 26%, Twenty to fifty percent: 27 %, Fifty to one hundred percent: 23%

Approximate Number of Machines Running Windows XP

Organizations with less than 50 Windows XP computers represent about half of the respondents. None: 15%, One to ten: 28%, Eleven to fifty: 24%, Fifty-one to hundred: 9%, One hundred or more: 25%

Do You Anticipate a Need to Keep Machines Running Windows XP After Microsoft ends support?

With Microsoft ending its free support of Windows XP on April 8, IT organizations that have not yet upgraded from the 12-year-old operating system are mulling their options. A new survey of 1,070 IT professionals conducted by Evolve IP, a provider of cloud computing services, finds that a significant number of Windows XP systems are still running despite Microsoft's efforts to get enterprise customers to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8. (It's estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of the computers in the world were running Windows XP in Dec. 2013.) The IT organizations that plan to upgrade are overwhelming moving to Windows 7, but there's still a substantial percentage of IT organizations that, for one reason or another, plan to continue running the Windows XP after Microsoft stop providing automatic updates and security patches in early April. (After that date, Microsoft will provide XP support to business customers for a fee.) The survey also makes clear that while CIOs at these organizations may one day embrace desktop virtualization and cloud computing, it won't be because of the retirement of Windows XP.

Mike Vizard has been covering IT issues in the enterprise for 25 years as an editor and columnist for publications such as InfoWorld, eWeek, Baseline, CRN, ComputerWorld and Digital Review.